Sports

Dana White quietly ends Zuffa’s war against boxing’s sanctioning bodies, Jake Paul reacts

LAS VEGAS, NV – AUGUST 25: UFC President Dana White points to the crowd during his official weigh-in at T-Mobile Arena on August 25, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. McGregor will meet boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a super welterweight boxing match at T-Mobile Arena on August 26. (Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) | Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Dana White may have skipped boxing’s peace summit, but it sounds like he ended the war anyway.

The Zuffa Boxing boss insisted he had “no interest whatsoever” in working with sanctioning bodies like WBC, WBA, and IBF, preferring to create his own championship belt and sign as many big names as possible. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman seemed unfazed by White’s one-man war and remained open to collaboration.

Sounds like White is softening his stance.

“On a case by case basis, [we’ll try] to figure out; you know, what the fighters want and what their goals are,” White said at Sunday night’s Zuffa Boxing press conference. “We will try to figure out whatever we can do to make those type of fights happen.”

It didn’t take long for celebrity boxer Jake Paul, White’s biggest critic, to weigh in.

“They went from shitting on all of the boxing sanctioning bodies and how they need to get rid of them for the good of boxing to now this,” Paul wrote on social media. “Truth is, we need to further align promoters and the sanctioning bodies to create the biggest opportunities for boxers. That should be the goal. More transparency, more collaboration and more big fights.”

Zuffa Boxing returns on Aug. 8 for a middleweight title fight between Ireland’s Aaron McKenna and Italy’s Etinosa Oliha at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.

For more Zuffa Boxing news and notes click here.

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